Strong Local Drenthe (, ) is a regionalist political party in the Netherlands, a partnership of various local political parties in the province of

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Jan ...

. The party is represented in the Provincial Council in that province and is a member of

Independent Politics Netherlands The Independent Politics Netherlands (, OPNL), formerly known as the Independent Senate Group (, OSF), is a federation of local and regional political parties in the Netherlands that competes in elections to the Dutch Senate. OPNL is composed o ...

History

Under the name ''Strong Local'' (), the party first participated in the elections for the

Provincial Council of Drenthe The Provincial Council of Drenthe (), also known as the States of Drenthe, is the provincial council of Drenthe, Netherlands. It forms the legislative body of the province. The Provincial Council currently holds 41 seats, which are distributed e ...

in 2015 with Aimée van der Ham as

lead candidate In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the candidate placed first on a party list. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government, and the party chair or party leader. Usage by country Neth ...

and won one seat. This seat was retained at the

2019 Dutch provincial elections Provincial elections were held in the Netherlands on 20 March 2019. Eligible voters elected the members of the Provincial States in the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. The elections were held on the same day as the 2019 Dutch water boards el ...

. After the elections, the Strong Local and

50PLUS 50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a list of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands that advocates List of pensioners' parties, pensioners' interests with a Centrism, centrist political line. The party was founded in ...

factions decided to merge into Strong Local Drenthe, which would give the party two seats, but the 50PLUS faction leader still decided to continue independently, starting the new party ''OpDrenthe''. Strong Local did change its name to Strong Local Drenthe. The merger plans led to some unrest within the party:

Assen Assen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in ...

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

Janna Booij decided to cancel her membership of Strong Local, and the group leader of Strong Local left the Provincial Council. The party retained its seat after the 2023 provincial elections. It is represented by

in the Dutch

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Ideology

Some of Strong Local Drenthe's key points are: * Fewer rules for small and medium-sized businesses * Less interference from the province with the municipalities * Better accessibility by improving the N34, the N48 and the

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

- Emmen railway line *

Fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

connections throughout the province * Less focus on

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s and more on other sustainable forms of energy

Election results

Provincial elections

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Regionalist parties in the Netherlands 2014 establishments in the Netherlands Centrist parties in the Netherlands Political parties established in 2014 Politics of Drenthe